The Labor enquirer., 1887-02-26
A WON ) NON : !
The Condition Of the Amerloai
People, To-Day, PERTH
nentIy Described.
An Earnest Word to All Men and
Women Who Have No
Home Life. @
Why Hay Not the Producers Il Al
Wealth Possess Fsod, Clsth-
ing and Sheltsri
For The Enquirer.

For The ENQUIRER. 4
WHAT n.
A very few have great wealth.
A larger number, but very small COM
pared y 18th the great number Of living
human beings, live in comfort.
Still others. class larger than thai Of
those living in comfort, live on mort
gagged farms or do small business on
partly borrowed capital. They have, in
most cases. enough to eat and decsnt
though cheap clothes to wear but the
mortgage is eating outtheir lives. They
never have one hour Of thorough enjoy
ment. one moment Of sweet forgetful-
ness. Tho mortgage lies on their hearts
just as persistently as 1t lies in its mort
gage-lined nest in the holders fire-proof
safe; it lies there by day and bv night.
robbing the night Of rest and the day Of
joy. Perhaps the mortgage-cursed fam
lily is worse than homeless, perhaps NO
home would be better than that hollow
mockerv, home in name which you
cannot find means to beautify and would
not beautify if you could because you
do not wish your labor to enrich the
mortgage. holder.
Then there are few who own little
homes free Of debt but who cannot get
comfortable livelihood; and after these
classes. comprising altogether but Q
small fraction of humanity, all the rest
of the world is homeless
Some living in swell-built houses.
wearing respectable clothes and eating
good food but never for day or hour or
minute forgetting the landlord.
Some living in less comfortable houses,
with palmer furniture. more shoddy ap.
parel and cheaper food.
Some in mean hoyels, with leaky
roofs. unsafe chimneys, broken floors
and unplastered walls and ceilings, but
all living in the same awful dread Of
rent day, which comes in spite of sick.
ness. or failure to fnd employment, or
misfortune of any kind. Rent day is
much more certain quantity in life than
doomsday is in death. "
Then there are those who are not
only homeless, but shelterless; who
have not even the rented roof between
them and the blue vault of heaven.
They cannot obtain employment. II
found IN cities or towns they are i'm.
prisoned or driven out of town for va
grancv; they are spurned from farm
house doors at the muzzles Of revolvers
they are driven from barns and hay
stacks by bulldogs; the highways fur
nish them no food but sometimes the
rivers and lakes furnish them with beds
from which they rise not. Is that very
strange?
Thousands upon thousands are in the
deep despair Of the unemployed while
other thousands are overworked; work,
work, work. from early morning till late
at night with 40 luxurles. few comforts
and not near all the necessities to de-
cent, strong and full life; with no hope
Of a better condition but lively fear Of q
worse, fear that they, too, shall some.
time join "the army Of unemployed"
To both the overlooked and the un.
employed happiness is \unattsinable and
life presents to her possible children no
inducsment TO be born. I
WHAT MIGHT BE. .
The birth-portion Of every child
might be security against homlessness
and want. Everv human being might
have q comfortable and beautiful home,
wholesome, plentiful and palatable food,
musical instruments and time to play
upon them, flowers an1 time 10 cult.
vate them, books and time to read
them, bathtub and time to use II,
good clothes and time and money to
wear them to places of amusement. 1t
might be within the power of every
man and woman to be cultured and re.
fined. The coal miner might speak
Latin If he chose. the cook might be an
astronomer and the weaver . pianist
Society will not set scientist above {
dirtshoveler when both may be found
in the same person.
Why should any one say that this il
the dream Of dreamer2 Is there mol
plenty Of material to build good houses
room to set them. architects to plan and
hands to construct them? Between the
selfish idleness Of the rich. and the en-
forced idlensss Of the unemployed pool
are there not plenty Of laborers to di
vide the hours Of toll and make them
shorterf Imagine all these and tn,
vast army Of those engaged in unneces.
sary pursuits all usefully employed, and
the utilization Of machinery to its ut.
most in saving labor and is not nv pic
ture rather sober and practical under
statement?
4 Only the Ignorance Of those who have
most reason 10 desire . change stands
between what 10 and what might be.
| CLARA DIXON DAVIDSON.